Do you need to be a Manager, a Leader or both?

 

There is a lot of information out in the land of Google that details the difference between a manager and a leader. This article is designed to simplify those differences and give some tips on how to do both.

I don’t believe that the manager and leader work in isolation, in fact in any leadership role both are required.

The Manager:

Fundamentally the manager’s role is pragmatic and practical. The manager is all about getting the work done by delegating and managing workflow. Ensuring systems are being followed and budgets kept on track. Managing the KPI’s of the team, distributing the work and looking at ways to be more effective and efficient.

The Leader:

The leader goes beyond the “getting work done” and is prepared to dive into the people side in a far more emotional way. What I mean by emotion is that the leader connects with their people, the leader creates and drives the vision and values, the leader coaches, develops and empowers people to bring out their best. The leader knows that a team is made up of individual human beings and to get the best out of the individual they must bring them together as a team that is built on trust, empathy, compassion and respect.

I have noticed over the years of working with leaders from the General Manager to the first time Team Leader that no matter the “level” both manager and leader are needed to turn up in the person, yet both are often lacking. People default to what they know and their natural way of doing things without any real awareness. The biggest mistake I see in business is people are promoted to a manager role because they are really good at what they do and then are given little to no training, coaching and support in the development of managing and leading.

Managing and leading are both important and you can’t have one without the other. To develop these skills here a couple of tips:

 

Manager

1. 1. Learn to delegate
   2. Don’t micromanage
   3. Train and upskill your team
   4. Constantly look at the processes and see how they can be done better

 

Leader

1. 1. Gain self awareness of your own behaviour
   2. Learn to control your emotional state
   3. Connect with your team members
   4. Show empathy and focus on building trust